International Association of Jewish
Genealogical Societies - Cemetery Project
IRAN
(formerly known as Persia)
THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
http://www.bh.org.il/Communities/Archive/Teheran.asp
[October 2000]
http://tehran.stanford.edu/index.html
: Center for Iranian Jewish Oral History,
PO Box 2543,
Beverly Hills, California 90213-2543,
email: info@cijoh.org [October 2000]
http://www.haruth.com/JewsIran.html
[October 2000]
http://www.sephardicstudies.org/historyiran.html
and also
http://www.iranonline.com/History/jews-history/index.html
A BRIEF HISTORY OF IRANIAN JEWS By Massoume
Price "...There were 85000 Iranian Jews before 1979, almost half
have emigrated mainly to USA. " [February 2002]
http://www.sephardicstudies.org/iran.html
: "Tehran has 11 functioning synagogues, many of them with
Hebrew schools. It has two kosher restaurants, and a Jewish
hospital, an old-age home and a cemetery." Demick, Barbara.
IRAN: Life of Jews Living in Iran. Knight-Ridder.
September 30, 1997. [October 2000]
http://www.mindspring.com/~jaypsand/dispersed.htm
: "The roots of the Persian Jewish community reach back to the
6th century B.C. The Jewish community in Persia used to be one of
the most culturally vibrant in the world, yet its numbers have
dwindled due to centuries of harsh persecution. Before the
Islamic revolution in 1979 there were 80,000 Jews in Iran, and
though most have emigrated to Israel, there is still a dedicated
Jewish community in Tehran. There currently a small number of
synagogues in Tehran, as well as three Jewish schools. Though
curriculum in the Jewish schools is strictly Islamic and teachers
are only allowed to teach the Bible in Persian, there is some
Hebrew instruction available through the community's elders. The
recent moderate regime in Iran has loosened control on the Jewish
minority in Tehran, and the community has been able to revitalize
some of its religious practices." [January 2002]
THE CEMETERIES
AHAVAZ :
The Tomb of Daniel is near Ahavaz (Shoush) and that of Mordekhai
and Esther is venerated at Hamadan. Source: The Jewish Travel
Guide . London: Jewish Chronicle, 1992. Extracted by Bernard
Kouchel: koosh@worldnet.att.net .
[March 1994]
HAMADAN :
Alternate name: Ecbatana, Persia. Source: http://www.farsinet.com/hamadan/index.html
" Under its simple brick dome there are two graves with
some Hebrew inscription up on the plaster work of the wall. Two
exquisite wooden tomb-boxes are also to be seen, one of which is
of an earlier date and bears an inscription in Hebrew. The
original structure dates to the 7th Century A. H. [13th Century
AD] and it might have been erected over other and more ancient
tombs. The exterior form of this mausoleum, built of brick and
stone, resembles Islamic constructions, and the monument consists
of an entrance, a vestibule, a sanctuary and a Shah-ni-shin
(King's sitting place). Some believe that the mausoleum is the
resting-place of Esther, the Achaemenian Queen and wife of Xerxes
(Khashayarshah) and the second tomb belongs to her uncle,
Mardocai." Source with photo: http://www.farsinet.com/hamadan/esther1.html
[October 2000]
"The so-called tomb of Esther and Mordechai is probably the
tomb of a much later Jewish queen, Shushan-Dukt, of the fifth
century C.E. Esther and her uncle are more likely to have been
buried at SUSA." Source: Freedman, Warren. World Guide for the
Jewish Traveler . NY: E.P. Dutton Inc, 1984. Extracted by
Bernard Kouchel: koosh@worldnet.att.net [March
1994]
ISFAHAN :
Also see LINJAN and PIR BAKRAN
"Graves date back 2,000 years. Many people believe that the
Abbasid mosque stands over a crypt containing the remains of the
Prophet Isaiah. 18 miles from Isfahan, the little village of
Linjan has an ancient Jewish cemetery with tombs inscribed from
the second century CE, including the tomb of Sarah, the daughter
of the patriarch Asher (son of Jacob)." Source: Freedman, Warren.
World Guide for the Jewish Traveler . NY: E.P. Dutton Inc,
1984. Extracted by Bernard Kouchel: koosh@worldnet.att.net [March
1994]
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/6713/
It has a cemetery with Jewish graves
2,000 years old, stunning synagogues and Jewish mausoleums with
tiles to rival those of the mosques - but a population of only
1,500 Jews." Demick, Barbara. "IRAN: Life of Jews Living in
Iran." Knight-Ridder. September 30, 1997. [October 2000]
LINJAN : see Pir Bakran and Isfahan
MASHHAD :
from a news report of August 16, 1999, no longer posted online,
originally at
http://www.vhlisraelwire.com/New/990816/99081613.html . It
was reported that Iran destroyed the ancient Jewish cemetery in
Mashhad. "According to the report from Zevulun, the Iranian
government used tractors to level what was once the Jewish
cemetery."
PIR BAKRAN :
- Sarah bat Asher Cemetery : (Sometimes known as Linjan)
The ancient cemetery for the Isfahan community was located here
with thousands of carved blocks. In a special section for foreign
Jews, one could see the stones, bordered by carved flowers and
elaborate work, inscribed in Hebrew as well as English, Italian,
German, Dutch -- some dating back hundreds of years. Pir Bakran
was considered a place of asylum for the Isfahani Jews during the
Persian version of pogroms. The story goes is that it was a
village of silversmiths who actually were originally Jewish but
converted by force (or willingly) to protect the cemetery. In
olden days, it took a week by horse and wagon in the winter to
reach the cemetery for burial, about 30 km outside Isfahan. When
I was there last in 1970, it was reached by mini bus from Isfahan
on a narrow very dusty bumpy road, possibly unpaved. The cemetery
contained huge buildings where whole families would stay at the
time of major holidays or at the "sol'" (Ashkenazi: Yahrzeit). It
was like the caravansaris in old movies: places for people and
for animals. I remember two very large synagogue buildings, very
ancient and with very large scorpions crawling around. In one
building, one crawled through a tunnel to see what was referred
to as Jacob's Pillow. The story was that at one point (when???)
it perpetually circled around on the ground, but that a non-Jew,
probably Moslem, placed something unpure on it and it stopped
moving. It was still a place of pilgrimage when we visited. I am
not sure if the cemetery exists now. We had rumors that a steel
mill was to have been built on this historic area, which had
served the Jews of Isfahan since ancient days (It is/was a 3,000
year-old community.) In line with Sephardic Oriental practice, no
coffins are used, only a shroud. In the more modern cemeteries in
Teheran, I remember headstones with a photograph of the deceased
mounted on, as well as carved, with flower holders affixed to the
stone. I do not remember headstones at all in Isfahan, only the
large blocks. Source: Schelly Dardashti dardasht@barak-online.net
SUSA :
(Shushan in the Bible). Tomb of the Prophet Daniel, a beautiful
shrine, where allegedly Daniel's bones are interred, was first
discovered by Arab invaders in the 7th century C.E. Source:
Freedman, Warren. World Guide for the Jewish Traveler .
NY: E.P. Dutton Inc, 1984. Extracted by Bernard Kouchel: koosh@worldnet.att.net .
[March 1994]
TEHRAN:
UPDATE:
http://www.beheshtieh.com/index.html:
This website shows most the graveyards in Beheshtieh
Tehran at Kheyaban Khorasan filmed in 2004. [September 2006]
UPDATE:
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20061223/D8M6FVD80.html has a news
story about Tehran cemetery web site. "The article describes a web site that
was developed by Los Angeles resident Shahram Avraham Farzan. He has
cataloged the final resting place for generations of Tehran's Jewish
people. The site is indexed alphabetically and has photos of the stones.
In addition there is a video of the cemetery. For those with family
connections to Iran/Persia, this could be a very useful web site:
http://beheshtieh.com/" [December 2006]
All individuals involved in the creation of this project are volunteers.
The right to make one copy for personal use with full citation is hereby granted;
however, no profit is to be made from the use of this website's information.
No reply will be made to inquiries about specific burials. All information that we possess is on the website. We have no other information so please do not write requesting any on either burial sites or individual burials.
Revised Monday January 01 2007